post chemo aches or pain?

Alex, I finished taxotere/cytoxin in mid-April and still have pelvic and/or knee pain many days.I am also getting aching in neck and head that feels like I have a fever, yet my temerature is normal. The over the counter pain meds don't help. I get relief only when I take vicodin or percocet.

I finished in February.  Still get them, and noticed a lot of stiffness.  The more I exercise and stretch, yoga etc. it helps, but doesnt ever completely go away

I finished Taxol in June....having so much aches/pain....my knees hurt and are weak, especially when I go up/down stairs or try to get up from a squat position (i have to use something to help pull myself back upright)....my whole body hurts when i first get up in the morning....and I am pretty sure that I have carpal tunnel syndrome now as well (and that hurts alot more than I ever imagined).  I had no pain before chemo.  I have searched google and found that tons of women suffer from body pain after Taxol, so I felt a bit better after reading that.  My onc wants me to come in, so I will see what she says.  Due to the locations of my pain, I am not suspecting bone mets, but blame the Taxol....

My daughter's pain dr told me that he treats lots of cancer patients who suffer from nerve-damage pain like I am experiencing.  He said that for every inch of nerve that is damaged, expect it to take one month to repair....so if I have 12 inches of nerve damage, that would be 12 months before it goes away completely.

I may have to cave in and take pain killers....right now, since I am on blood thinners, I only take tylenol, which does absolutely nothing for the pain.

Hope we all get relief soon

Pamelajo, I had TC too. After terrible bone pain after the first round I took claritin before the rest and it made a huge difference! I reccomend it.

Oh Man am I glad I found this thread!  I thought I was going nuts or already had mets.  I finished 4 rounds of Cytoxin/Taxotere at the end of May and went right into rads and finished second week of August.  The first week of August I started getting lower back pain which comes and goes.  Yesterday I did the Making strides walk and now I feel like I'm 100!  My neck also hurts sometimes although I have no fever it feels more like a weird sore throat.  And just general aches.

Thank you all for letting me know I'm not nuts, dying or have a re occurrence! I plan to do some yoga and get back into the gym people have told me that helps.

Thanks again,

Tina 

Hello everyone,

Ladies: I hope this will work for you, it was a miracle for my wife who has regained full activity and the muscle and joint pain is almost completely gone! 

My wife was diagnosed with IDC in February and has completed chemo and rads as of last month.  During taxotere/cytoxan she began having joint and muscle pain that was very debilitating.  It would come and go suddenly.  Any sitting or being still seemed to make it worse.  Her oncologist prescribed the usual: first percocet then loritab after he became wary of continued use of percocet.  Her oncologist said it was unusual to have this pain so long after chemo so he referred her to pain management at out local hospital.

She went to see her family physician last week and he prescribed Cymbalta which is used to treat fibromyalgia.  The first day she took it her pain all but vanished.  The next few days were touch and go but the doctor had warned her the full effect would not come for a week or so when taking the drug.  Now a week later she is (Thank GOD and thanks to her regular physician) back to her old self.

I hold no grudge against the oncologist.  He is a great doctor and very sympathetic.  However it seems that doctors get used to their routine and have so much to deal with that they rarely take the time to do any research about symptoms and side effects which are said to be "rare".  I don't know the impact of taking the drug during chemo so make sure to ask your oncologist.

While I'm at it: if any of you have had eye problems such as uncontrolled tearing or irritation of your eyes during taxotere/cytoxan:  After the first infusion of tax/cytoxan my wife's eyes started watering uncontrollably and it continues to this day.  Now she can't wear eye makeup.  After much research I found documentation that taxotere and cytoxan can damage the tear and oil ducts in the eye causing stenosis: Canalicular Stenosis.  Irreversible.  The articles I found mentioned the possibility of having an ophthalmologist insert silicone tubes into the tear ducts asap after the symptoms appear to prevent further damage.  As far as I know the only way to fix it after the damage is done it is to have an ocular surgeon permanently surgically bypass the tear ducts with glass tubes.  We have tried everything under the sun and nothing works so we will be considering a visit to an Oculoplastic Surgeon.  If you notice excessive tearing make sure to tell your oncologist to look up this info for himself.  The studies have been out there for about 10 years.  I have found that many oncologists including our own simply dismiss the symptoms as rare instead of exercising due diligence with a bit of research.  I found the info using the ubiquitous Google.  Some doctors get mad when their patients presume to do their own research, especially on the Internet.  Don't let it bother you.  It's easy to find a wealth of respected research and info on the Internet but most doctors wouldn't be caught dead using a Google search to look up symptoms.

One more issue:  Radiation burns:  My wife had 6 weeks of rads.  As predicted her skin began to get red at the 3rd week, then it started to burn.  I did some extensive research (again) and found many advertised products.  I decided to make my own using a dozen natural ingredients used in many popular salves and ointments.  My wife started slathering on the stuff after every rad dose and kept it on at night.  Within days the redness subsided and disappeared.  We were amazed and so was her radiation oncologist who had never seen anything like it.  I have heard stories of BC patients burning so bad the skin sloughed off in places and nothing seemed to help.  Other BC survivors we have talked to have seriously damaged dimpled, wrinkled,mottled purple and red skin for up to a year or more after rads.  My wife finished rads a week or so ago and her skin looks like she never had the treatment.  I will be doing more research and plan on providing the salve to our local cancer radiation center for free to make sure my wife's result wasn't a fluke.  If it works with others the way it did with my wife we'll be providing it for BC patients to use and ALL profit will go to cancer research.

Ladies/Caregivers and especially HUSBANDS!!!:  You must be an active and participatory advocate for your wife's health!!  Don't let your doctor discourage you from asking questions and doing research.  My blind faith in my wife's initial doctor (who we basically fired after he recommended watchful waiting, allowing her tumor to double in size), was misplaced.  He failed to offer her the option of a needle biopsy at first and later when it was too late he preached against the simple and proven methodology of core or needle biopsy since he believed in the antiquated view that it will "seed" and spread cancer if it was present.  He also got mad at me for asking questions and doing my own research.  His unprofessional conduct and lack of belief in current technology resulted in my wife having 12 nodes positive out of 20.  Had he done a needle biopsy when she first pointed out the lump to him the year before it would have been a much easier road for my wife.  Remember, doctors are not infallible and sometimes their egos can hurt your chances.  If you feel any resistance to questions or concerns, get a different doctor.

God Bless you all and keep you safe and healthy.  And by the way, take it easy on your caregivers, we get frazzled and discouraged too. Even though you are the patient, we are as terrified and concerned as you are and many of us (me included) actually feel the pain and sickness the same as expectant fathers have sympathetic labor pains.

Feel free to email me anytime, we have been through a lot as you all have and we are willing to help anyone in any way we can to make it through all this.   RBurton  HDSledge@gmail.com

Ask you MD if cymbalta is ok for you.  It worked wonders for my wife.

Another thing is to have your thyroid checked. They do a blood test to see how much TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is in it. If there is too much, it means your thyroid gland isn't producing enough and your body is trying to get it to produce more.

Hypothyroid (making too little thyroid hormone) often hits around age 50. I thought I was having joint stiffness and aches because of aging (feeling like an old woman was my thought too) - which didn't make me happy. It didn't occur to me that it might be something to see the doctor about but fortunately I had a routine physical and the blood test showed low TSH. After I was started on thyroid hormone, I noticed that the aches went away. Then I googled and found that it wasn't always listed as low thyroid symptom but it shows up in the more comprehensive symptom lists.

Angicpa, I've only seen Claritin mentioned as reducing the bone pain from Neulasta or Neupogen and then people take it around the time they get the shot.

Some women also said they thing that they get some muscle pain from the Herceptin.

Followup:

 My wife was prescribed Tramadol (non-narcotic) by her pain mgt specialist and it seems to work very well.

 So now she only has to take Loritab once in a while.  Looks like the combination of Cymbalta and Tramadol is the key at least for my wife.

She feels pretty good most of the time now althought the fatigue is still there.  So far we are 3 weeks out from rads and several months from last chemo.

Ask your pain mgt spec or oncologist if he/she is willing to try either of those for you.  Good luck!~

I also thought I had succumbed to old age very suddenly and prematurely!  I just turned 46, had my last tx of 6 TC in Sep. 08, and just this past few months have begun to have crazy joint aches all over the place.  I never had any aches or pains during chemo, so it took me a while to make the connection.  It started in the hips...I'm awakened several times during the night because when I lie on either side, the hip on the bottom will get persistently achier until I move.  My knees are wimpy off and on, and now I'm feeling it in my elbows and wrists.  Cold, rainy weather aggravates all of it.  I sound like my grandmother.  Fun!   DH and I went on a hilly hike about a month ago, and going downhill murdered one of my knees (never had knee probs before)...going back up I was like an old crone in a fairy tale leaning on a crooked branch as a walking stick!  Chemo...the "gift" that keeps on giving?  Oh well, things could be worse, as we all know. 

Yes, zenbug, I've been in menopause almost since the beginning of chemo, and since it's been over a year since my last tx, I assume I'll stay there.  I didn't think about the estrogen thing contributing to the aches, but now that you mention it...duh!  (Hence feeling like an "old lady".)  I know the menopause certainly helps me keep these extra 10 lbs. around my waist that were never there before!  Your aches sound like mine...I hate those sudden stabs, those are always scary because I had that feeling in my breast before I got diagnosed.  Of course, if we worried about every weird ache or pain, we'd be balled up in a corner somewhere!  It's always good to know so many others have the same situation and we're not falling apart at the seams.